In 2006, I began a journey of both discovery and rediscovery in the well-worn ruts between places I went as a child, and became an archaeologist of my own existence, excavating the documents and photographs left behind in a house we moved out of in 1968. Ultimately, this led to a deep photographic investigation of the places between my hometown and the more rural northern California areas to which my family traveled annually in the 70s. The body of work combines my imagery of the region and my father’s work dating back to the 40s.

Colleen Mullins was a fiscal year 2011 and 2013 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is funded, in part, by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation of the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

This work was also supported in part by a Fellowship from the mnartists.org/McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship for Photographers Program, with funds made available by the McKnight Foundation.